Green Ink: Bad Hydrogen, Good Garbage, and Crunch Time for Desal Plants

By

Keith Johnson

May 15, 2009 8:26 am ET

Crude oil futures gave back some of Thursday’s gains and moved toward $58 a barrel on a continued grim economic outlook, Bloomberg reports. The odd movement in oil prices lately could be because crude is tracking stocks—not inventories, but equities, in the WSJ.

House Democrats secured the support of Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher for the energy and climate bill—thanks to generous support for “clean coal”—bringing the bill one step closer to victory in committee, in Politico and Wash Wire.

Democrats aren’t winning all the hearts and minds, though. Indiana’s governor sees dark plans afoot, in the WSJ: “It looks like imperialism. This bill would impose enormous taxes and restrictions on free commerce by wealthy but faltering powers — California, Massachusetts and New York — seeking to exploit politically weaker colonies in order to prop up their own decaying economies.”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu explains what comes after Yucca Mountain and why the government pulled the plug on hydrogen cars, in an interview with MIT Technology Review. Someone tell California, where plans to develop a hydrogen-car infrastructure continue apace, at Grist.